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The
next act should have taken things up a gear or five. By far the most
experienced act of the night. who came third in last
year's SCOTY, was Gus Tawse. This year he was odds on to get back into the final, I think
he knew that too much and thought it would be a walk in the park, because
as the saying goes he phoned this gig in. Gus is a dead pan one line
gag merchant. To sell yourself as that you need to ingratiate yourself to
the audience, make them think that you really mean what you say. A change
of facial expression here and knowing wink there. Instead Gus spent most
of his gig either looking up at the ceiling or swaying back and forth on
his feet. Although he ever used his strongest material (most of it was the
same as last year) Gus got lots of laughs, perhaps the most of the night.
But I don't think he should blame the audience or anyone else that he
never got through to this year's final. Maybe it was his just his fault he
was resting on his laurels whilst others have worked hard and vastly improved. Bratchy
does a great routine about hating drama school kids, Katie Craig
should watch it. She looked amazing up there and she's obviously had a lot
of stage training. Her material is off beat and kooky, but not punchy
enough and very obviously scripted. I would imagine that her comedy
influences are Lucy Porter and Jo Enright, however she needs to find a
voice of her own. When she does she will definitely be one to watch. Metally
skater dude Stephen Rose delivered the kind of material that stoned
students across the world have thought of many many times before. If you
are going to do a routine about the taste of semen being linked to the
food stuffs you eat do your research and find out about pineapples first. Another
of last year's finalists was our last act of the night Scott Forbes.
In last year's final he dried up and fled the stage after 4 minutes.
Tonight he controlled the room with skill and ease. If Billy Kirkwood has
a long lost twin then Scott has morphed into him in both looks and comedy
style. Like Mr Rose, Scott did student pleasing stoner material, however
his material was cleverly delivered. His energy, facial expressions and
voices made the audience sit up and take notice. After last year's heat I
said that he was too parochial and needs to gig more down south. I
reiterate that he needs to gig down south more, this time because he will rock it. If Scott delivered
tonight's performance in last years' final he would have had a good shout
of getting placed. Voting
was tight with four acts head and shoulders above the rest. Gus Tawse was
up there, unfortunately for him Scott Forbes has improved hugely, but even more so
tonight's runner up Carly Baker and winner Andy Learmonth,
both of whom are now in the grand final
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